WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 184,1
394
useful retrenchment will receive their due attention in the coun- cils of the nation. Instead of millions thrown away on swarms of useless loafers, upon a crowd of officers numbering ten where one is required-instead of the foolish and oppressive expenditures under which we are now groaning, we shall find the expenses of government reduced to three hundred thousand dol- lars per annum, instead of three millions. Our country can re- cover itself, and, with the blessing of God, its regeneration is certain. Then the head will not be bowed down, nor the hands manacled, nor the feet chained; the people wi!l burst the bonds that confine them; the nation will rise to its strength. It will be done. It is the voice of the people, it will be done. So far as my entire cooperation may be of use, I will not impede it. I will lay my shoulder to the wheel. In promoting the interests of my country, I feel that I am promoting my own individual happiness. All that I have, either in reputation or in property, is in Texas. T'exas is my abiding place; this is my home, my nation, the home of my friends. Then what consideration have I not to inspire me with real and heartfelt zeal for the interests of my fellow citizens? Have they not preferred me? Have they not called me forth in this crisis of difficulty and embarrassment? ·what return can I make their partiality, but the devotion of a sincere heart, and the best intelligence that advice can give, or an honest heart inspire? With these purposes I leave you; notwithstanding that many have hurled at me the most malignant accusations, and even threats of assassination, to intimidate me from the discharge of the duties that officially devolve upon me. But I feel as I have ever felt, the inspiring hope and confidence that I was never born nor reared to fall the victim of a base assassin. Threats are idle. When my country calls, I have ever deemed it my duty and my privilege to peril my life upon the issue of her glory. Where duty prompts, I shall not shrink, if a thousand envious daggers shall be thirsting for the blood of this heart. I will dare the deed, and leave fate to heaven. The man that cannot act when his country demands his action, regardless of threatened danger, deserves execration deeper and louder than the deep-toned approbation that my country has be- stowed upon me; and I should be a traitor, indeed, if I would not risk all for her. Some idle paragraphs have fourcd their way into the news- papers, to which I give an occasional perusal; though I may truly
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